ARE THERE TWO VARIETIES OF ELEPHANTS'! 35 



made, it will be acknowledged that Mr. Sanderson made a 

 mistake in saying they were identical. The Goondas, male 

 and female, have a broader expanse across the forehead ; the 

 bump between the eyes and the root of the trunk is more 

 prominent, but the hollow between the eye and ear, commonly 

 called the temple, is less marked. Its countenance is more 

 pleasing, its eyes brighter and kinder-looking; it seldom 

 grows to the height of the Muckna. The males have large 

 tusks, the females rudimentary ones. 



The Muckna, called " Hine " in Burma, has the head much 

 longer and narrower, the temple very much depressed ; the 

 trunk is longer, more ponderous, possessing immense strength, 

 as if to compensate the beast for the want of the formidable 

 tusks possessed by its rival. Both males and females have 

 rudimentary tushes only, longer and thicker in the male than 

 in the female ; the eyes are small and sleepy-looking, and its 

 general appearance morose ; and even when quite young it 

 has an old look. In size, they grow taller and are more leggy 

 than the Goondas. The two varieties herd apart, but inter- 

 breed at times, the males often righting for possession of the 

 females, and the result of the cross-breed is that you get 

 large males with very poor tusks, but still tusks, as distinct 

 from tushes, which adorn the Mucknas. 



In Ceylon there is not above one tusker to three hundred 

 Mucknas. I doubt if there would be that number even, had 

 not tuskers been imported from the mainland for work in the 

 timber yards, as only tuskers can carry and stack the heavy 

 squared logs. Some of these in days gone by have probably 

 got loose or have had intercourse with the female elephants 

 of the country, and a throw back is now and then the result. 

 But from long association with both varieties I am convinced, 

 in my own mind, that they are varieties, and not identical. 



If Nature has not given intellect to these animals, it has 

 given them an instinct next thing to it. One has only to 

 hunt them in their wilds to learn how wonderfully Providence 

 has taught them to choose the most favourable ground, 

 whether for feeding or encamping, and to resort to jungles, 

 where their ponderous bodies so resemble rocks or the dark 

 foliage by which they are surrounded that it is most difficult 



